


When in Doubt, Be Polite

by SleeplessSquad



Series: Hiccup's Little Friends [1]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Hiccup has more than five friends au, my dudes, pre-hijack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:46:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26436646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleeplessSquad/pseuds/SleeplessSquad
Summary: Hiccup never gave Gobber's missing left sock much thought until he found a herd of people about the size of his palm running around trying to mitigate the damage of the trolls. Turns out, Hiccup has more in common with these "Brownies" than he first thought
Series: Hiccup's Little Friends [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1921675
Kudos: 10





	When in Doubt, Be Polite

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Soul of a Druid](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5555366) by [SilverlySilence](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverlySilence/pseuds/SilverlySilence). 



Long before he ever met Jack, the fae adored Hiccup. And why wouldn’t they? He was a sweet, polite little kid. He was curious about things, careful albeit clumsy. He was also too young to know not to wander off into the forest. And who was there to stop him? His father was too preoccupied being chief of a particularly demanding tribe during a war to be a perfect father for an… eccentric child, who didn’t like weapons nearly as much as a viking child should. So he found out Hiccup loved the forest and thought “THIS is something we can talk about!”   
He took Hiccup hunting, which the young boy loved. He didn’t like fishing so much. He had to stay in one spot and focus on one thing for fishing. But that’s why he loved hunting. He could wander the forest for hours looking at trees and flowers and small animals in the time between spotting prey. He’d sit by brooks and play. He’d catch frogs, but he always let them go. He’d draw flowers in his book. One day he left those pictures behind, and one fae found them.  
“Look at these pictures!” they said. “Drawn by a human boy. You don’t see human boys drawing flowers too often. How peculiar.” So they kept an eye on this unusual human boy.

Stoick’s well-meaning excursions into the forest had the unforeseen consequence of making Hiccup  _ comfortable _ with it, which is bad for a small child with a busy single parent. But, the tribe needed food, and Hiccup was most comfortable with the hunting parts of the forest because that’s where he and Stoick went, so on the days where Stoick was too busy to watch Hiccup, he’d let him play in the forest, and also coordinate hunting parties to keep an ear out for him, or ask Hiccup to stay close to the livestock trails the farmers use. Dragons always left for the nest, and they’d hunted all the wild boars on Berk, so there wasn’t much danger for a reserved boy like Hiccup to find himself in, surely. 

Except there was, and Hiccup would find himself in it more often than he should. 

But the fae adored this little child. So when Hiccup fell off a rock that was too big and broke his arm and screamed in pain, the hunting party didn’t hear  _ him.  _ They heard the fae  _ mimicking  _ him in an effort to lead the party to where Hiccup lay in the dirt, cradling his arm.

* * *

There’s something you have to understand about the island of Berk. Trolls aren’t “trolls”. What Hooligans thought of—or rather, scoffed at the thought of—as trolls, aren’t really trolls. They’re gnomes. Gnomes guard a treasure. The gnomes on Berk had such a treasure, but it was stolen by Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the First. Now, two Hiccup Horrendous Haddocks later, the gnomes still steal from Berk as penance for their treasure that was taken. The brownies, a much more forgiving race, tried to mitigate the damage as much as they could. And so, nights on Berk was the time of restful sleep for the humans, but a metaphorical battleground for the fae. The gnomes would try to steal people’s right socks, and the brownies would valiantly fight them off, or at least replace them. No one knows why the gnomes steal right socks. The gnomes aren’t particularly forthcoming with this information, and as of the time of this story being written, no one’s really wanted to go ask yet. 

But back to the reason of why they’re not known as gnomes. Well, no one on Berk  _ knew _ of them before one Gobber Belch saw one stealing his right sock. In his confusion, he didn’t see which sock it was. Gobber also wasn’t well versed in fae due to Berk not really being superstitious about them. So, since trolls were one of the few types of fae Gobber knew, a troll is what Gobber called the gnome. And no one else knew enough to correct him. Well, no one that was talking to the humans, that is. As for Gobber’s sock? The brownies sewed his left sock to fit his right foot, so when morning came, Gobber saw no left sock.

A similar story happened with Hiccup, the boy the fae found interesting, years later. He’d lost his left leg. The fae saw him without it one day. “The poor boy,” they chittered. “It looks like it just fell off! Yes, I suppose that may happen, sometimes. Many people here have fallen-off limbs, after all. But still. That poor child.” 

The gnomes on the other hand, heard this. They didn’t hear the fae mention Hiccup by name, though,which is lucky, because their wrath would have been worse for the boy named after their old enemy.

They crept into his house one night and stole his sock. As the tale of Gobber played out, the brownies took pity on him and remade his left sock into a right one. Except this time, Hiccup saw them.

“Thanks?” he whispered, because this was all happening at night and Hiccup didn’t want to wake his dad, who didn’t believe in brownies. Not the fae brownies, at least. It would be frivolous to not believe in a confectionary item. 

The brownies squeaked in surprise and fled. But luckily, they’d finished the sock.

* * *

The next night when they entered Hiccup’s room to chase off more gnomes, they found a note saying  _ I appreciate your help. How can I repay you? _

This naive boy, the brownies thought. Oh, we must teach him. But we mustn’t refuse a gift. 

That morning, Hiccup found a note requesting a little bowl of milk be left out for them. It also said to be careful about fae and debts, and not to ever admit to owing them something, because you never know what they’ll demand.

Hiccup left a bowl of milk for them, and by morning, it was gone. 

* * *

About a week passed, and the brownies found Hiccup asleep at his desk. The brownies had told the fae about Hiccup being kind to them, and the fae had turned on the gnomes for Hiccup’s sake, because what an entertaining little thing he was!

So the brownies had free time on their hands, which meant that when they found Hiccup asleep, they had the time to stop and look at his blueprints. It was a prosthetic leg. “Clever,” Did, one of the brownies commented. “You hardly see this attention to detail in these islands.” The others nodded. They tried to move Hiccup’s hand off the paper to see the rest, but that woke Hiccup up. All of the brownies except the two most adventurous ones hid. They’d heard Hiccup was nice, so even though they were nervous, they weren’t going to pass up the chance to talk to a human that  _ made things _ if he was nice!

“Hi?” Hiccup said, yawning and sitting up.

“Hello!” Did answered. “Why are you designing another leg if you only have one stump to fit it on?” he asked.

“Ah-well I- um. That is. This one” and Hiccup shook his leg for emphasis “Doesn’t quite fit right. And the spring is too stiff. So I’m trying to fix that.”

The brownies nodded.

“We can help,” the other brownie named Meeg offered.

“You-you don’t have to do that!” Hiccup stammered. “I appreciate it, but I’d hate to demand this of you.”

“It’ll be fun!” Meeg insisted. “It’s been so long since we’ve gotten to do  _ our _ jobs and not just chase the gnomes out.” 

“Gnomes? I thought they were trolls.”

Meeg shrugged. “Just because someone calls them trolls doesn’t mean that’s what they  _ are _ .”

“You’re right.” 

“But now,” Did said, “We have time to do what we want again!”

“And what do you want to do?” Hiccup asked.

“Oh, it doesn’t matter. We cook, clean. Some of us lucky ones can build or fix things for people. But nothing ever comes without a price.”

“Milk?” Hiccup wagered a guess.

“Or cream. Really, most dairy items. We’re not picky. One night of toil, one day’s worth of cream. It’s the perfect bargain!” Did said.

Hiccup didn’t have much want for cream, usually, and it didn’t look like the brownies had much want for free time. Truly, the most effective of deals.

“Well then,” Hiccup said, picking up his pencil, “I guess I could use some help on this. Do you want milk or cream tonight?”


End file.
